Chapter 372 The Paramount Judgment

Chapter 372 The Paramount Judgment

"Not necessarily. Seeing how powerful he is, we have never heard of this person, which means that he did not follow our path. Since he is not a fellow traveler, there is no need for him to step on it.

It seems that his family was really there in the Shanghai Palace a few days ago.

Zhan Kui, hurry up and find out if Qiu Chishan is really dead. If he is really dead, the FBI did it, so you really have to give him the money. "

If Qiu Chishan was shot with a black gun, then Wu Jiazhao was not worried at all. Although someone touched the head of the bed this time, the defense around him was not tight in the first place, so just pay attention in the future.

However, if the FBI really did it, then the power surnamed Nan will be terrible, and they can't afford to mess with it.

"Seventh Uncle, more than eight million yuan, this will empty out my family's fortune." Yin Zhankui said with heartache.

"Is money more important, or is life more important?"

Nanyi's original idea was to kill Yin Zhankui and Wu Jiazhao silently. After calming down and thinking about it, they really killed them, and the power in Chinatown was vacuumed up.

Basically, there will be a situation of being eaten away by the Nan Gang or the Mafia, and then waiting for the next Chinese power to rise and drive them out of Chinatown.

In this process, how many Chinese in Chinatown have suffered from it?

I don't kill Boren, but Boren died because of me. Nanyi really can't do things that harm others and benefit himself.

Nan Yi went upstairs and saw Nan Ruobing carrying a "chicken wing" to the sky garden, "What time is it now, are you going to barbecue?"

"No, such a big chicken wing, of course it needs to be smeared with honey and smoked. It's so heavy, Dad, how heavy do you think these chicken wings are?"

"It's about thirty catties, don't call it chicken wings, it's impolite."

"Ostrich can't fly, so it can only be regarded as a chicken. I don't know if the chicken wings are so big."

"It's okay, it's more like beef, but the meat is a little more delicate than beef. Don't do it. Just send it to Scarlett and let Renault get it. This meat is not cheap, so don't waste it."

"Dad, didn't you say that a girl should know how to cook? I'm learning how to cook now." Nan Ruoying said righteously.

"Come on, you're just a little girl, what kind of girl."

"It's the same, it doesn't matter, I'm going to make smoked chicken wings today." After speaking, Nan Ruofing continued to carry the ostrich wings and walked to the sky garden.

Nanyi shook his head and went to the kitchen to put away the rest of the ostrich meat.

An African ostrich weighs nearly 300 catties, and one neck is enough for three people to eat. It is estimated that not many people will buy the whole one. The future sales will still mainly focus on restaurants. The breeding volume of Nuwa Animal Husbandry is not suitable. is too big.

After Nanyi collected the ostrich meat, he began to study the "Paramount Judgment".

The most profitable business is a monopoly business. Everyone knows this, so industry leaders will try their best to obtain a monopoly position.

But monopoly hinders competition. In the long run, it is very bad for consumers. Therefore, Washington will always use some means to limit monopoly and keep the market active.

For the Hollywood film industry, the contest between big companies pursuing monopoly and Washington's anti-monopoly has played out countless rounds in the century-old history.

One of the most critical turning points is the "Paramount ruling" in the 1940s, which broke the vertical monopoly of the eight major Hollywood companies on the entire film industry.

The defendants involved in the "Paramount Ruling" were the eight major film companies that were absolutely dominant in Hollywood at that time, and these eight major film companies can be divided into five majors and three minors.

The Big Five are Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and RKO. They control the three links of production, distribution, and screening at the same time; the Big Three are Columbia, Universal, and United Artists, which only produce films and distribution, which do not own cinemas.

Since the 1920s, these eight major studios have tried to monopolize the film industry. They have bought up luxury theaters in major cities in China, although in terms of quantity, the controlled theaters only account for a small part of the theaters in China.

But what they control are the high-quality first-run theaters in each city, which are the main box office locations. In terms of box office share, the Big Eight have already achieved a monopoly position in the Chinese market.

Both small studios and independent non-chain theaters have been squeezed out, making it difficult for small studio films to enter the first-run theaters controlled by the Big Eight, and it is difficult for non-chain theaters to get the Big Eight's hottest titles.

The strategies of the eight major monopolies include packaged distribution, extending the interval between rounds, showing films in their own theaters according to the exclusivity of different cities, and so on.

Naturally, Washington cannot just sit idly by and ignore this kind of operation.

As a result, the judiciary initiated a lawsuit, bringing all the eight major film companies and theaters to court.

Although Washington has won most of the lawsuits, and the Eighth National Congress has also signed various agreements and guarantees, who will look at the money and not make money?

Obedience and violation, not implemented in actual implementation, this must be the meaning of the title.

During World War II, Washington did not have time to take care of Hollywood. The Eighth National Congress took advantage of this opportunity to occupy about 20% of the movie theaters in the United States.

Although the number does not seem to be much, 90% of the 20% of the theaters have first-run theaters, and the number of released films also accounts for as much as 75%.

So after the end of World War II, Washington, which had freed up its hands, came back to clean up the Eighth National Congress.

According to the Sherman Anti-Monopoly Act, the district court found that although the Big Eight did not attempt to monopolize the production of films, there were indeed many monopolistic behaviors in the distribution process, which must be broken.

At the beginning, the New York District Court proposed a "film distribution system that can ensure sufficient competition" through negotiation with the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, but this idea was rejected when it was sent to the Supreme Court [High Court] for approval.

The Supreme People's Court believes that the system proposed by the New York Local Law is not feasible at all. What's worse, in order to monitor whether the Eighth Congress is implementing this system, manpower and material resources have to be wasted and invested in the protracted daily operation of the Eighth Congress.

It's not cost-effective to do this, so it's better to think of a good solution once and for all.

This is a good way to permanently separate the theaters from the big eight film studios. As long as the production, distribution and screening are not in the same company, the previous monopoly of the eight big studios will naturally be broken.

In the end, the process of the eight major theaters being divested lasted for more than 30 years, and it has not been completely completed until now. However, those illegal means in the distribution operation disappeared very quickly.

According to the requirements of the Supreme Court, film distribution is no longer a package of multiple films, but each film is negotiated separately, and all theaters are treated equally according to the quality of the film.

Conversely, theaters are not allowed to discriminate against distributors.

However, Nanyi looked at the strategy proposed by Gaofa in his hand, which actually has loopholes. No wonder several of the Eight Great Law Schools are now eyeing the theaters again.

According to the requirements of the Supreme Court, the Eighth National Congress was split into a film company and a theater chain, and the two parties must not interfere with each other's operations.

If the film company wants to re-enter the screening process, or the theater chain wants to enter the production and distribution process, they need to make a statement [stating the situation] to the High Court.

This is a bit nonsense here, as long as the two companies are still controlled by the same group of shareholders, although it is not as convenient as before, it is relatively easy to take care of each other.

But even so, this has also caused the eight majors to weaken their control over film distribution channels. All films have received more fair competition conditions than before, and films from independent film companies have more opportunities to enter theaters.

This has also created countless independent filmmakers in Hollywood today.

However, this situation changed after Reagan came to power. Reagan pursued neoliberal economics, and the supervision of trust monopoly was very loose. The era of Roosevelt's New Deal was turned upside down.

During this period, the "Sherman Act" was also re-understood, and some behaviors that were considered monopoly in the past are now legal.

This heralds the advent of the era of large mergers. Since the 1980s, there have been many company merger cases in China, and many companies have expanded in a low-key or high-profile way.

The Eight Natures also sensed the opportunity inside. In 1980, before Reagan entered the White House, the Love Cinemas applied to the High Court to resume their film distribution business. Unexpectedly, the High Court actually approved it.

Although there are some additional conditions, Love's can't show his own films, try not to conflict with the Paramount ruling, etc.

Love's theater chain was actually a subsidiary of MGM decades ago, so Love's has returned to the embrace of MGM in disguise.

In 1981, Columbia purchased a 48% stake in Walder Reid Cinemas, which was also licensed.

In 1983, CBS, HBO and Columbia Pictures jointly founded TriStar [TriStar], because their merger was considered to increase internal competition in the film industry, and it was not blocked.

After all, the three companies are all production and distribution companies and do not involve theaters.

But not long after, Samsung Pictures began to annex Loew’s theaters, and this approach was actually encouraged by the Supreme Court. Recently, the bosses of independent theaters have begun to jump out, calling for the abolition of the Paramount ruling It will jeopardize the free competition in the film industry and ultimately harm the interests of the audience.

But their appeal did not get anyone's support. The success of Samsung's acquisition of Loew's was like firing the first shot of the Eighth University's counterattack. In an instant, the Eighth University was annexed internally, changing from the Eighth University to the Seventh University.

Then one by one was about to move, and Warner Bros. made a big move, buying shares in many theaters at once; Paramount spent 300 million US dollars and bought more than 100 theaters at once.

Then the show operation began, and Warner injected capital into the theaters owned by Paramount, and the two major alliances began.

The other big ones, except for 20th Century Fox, are actually connected with each other. The purpose is very simple. Both independent film studios and theaters have to rely on them. Independent films must be handed over to one of the seven big ones for distribution.

Otherwise, just go to the cinema by yourself and see how many people will respond.

This ensures that the Big Seven can eat the fattest piece of cake in the Hollywood film industry, and independent filmmakers can only eat the rest.

If an independent film company believes that its film has great potential, it must be handed over to one of the top seven for distribution. Otherwise, no matter how good the film is, it will have no chance of getting a high box office.

Nanyi took out a calculator and calculated the return on investment period and rate of return of the theater chain, and calculated the investment in theater renovation and projection equipment update in the future. The result of the calculation was that he was not optimistic about investing in theater chains in North America. The cycle is too long and the rate of return is not high.

Instead, you can consider investing in theaters in Asia, especially in the Mainland, where the rate of return will be higher.

Fang’s Group’s construction plan for Fang’s Square in East Asia has already started. In East Asia, Fang’s will soon be able to set up a theater line. When Hong Kong movies are popular, they will show more Hong Kong movies. When they fail, they will seamlessly connect with Hollywood. Blockbuster.

"Dad, try it and see if it tastes good."

Nan Ruofing came to Nan Yi with a large piece of ostrich wing meat on a barbecue fork.

"You're kidding me. How long have you smoked? The ostrich meat has to be smoked for at least a day and a night. Bring it here and let me smell it." Nan Yi took the barbecue fork and frowned after smelling it. What kind of wood smoked?"

"No wood, smoked with walnut charcoal."

"I……"

Nan Yi jumped up from the chair, it has been more than two hours, how much walnut charcoal Nan Ruofeng, this dead girl, has to use him.

"Haha, Dad, I lied to you, I used apple tree wood."

"Then your craftsmanship is really bad, I can't smell the fruity smell at all. Let's go, Dad will teach you how to bacon."